Author's Note: Please keep in mind that I haven't read the books... Everything I know comes from the movie. If I have gotten something wrong, tell me in a review or e-mail ) and I will see if I can fix it. If I can't, I'll just let it be.
When I First Met Him
When I first met Peter, I just nodded and went back to work. He looked at me, but left with Captain Aubrey, bless the man's soul.
"Hello," he said to me one day. We had not spoken a word to each other till then.
"Hello," I replied.
"You have been ignoring me," he said.
I grunted.
"Do I make you ill, somehow?" he asked.
I grunted again. I did not look at him.
"If I'm troubling you..."
"No, you're not," I said.
"I feel that I am."
"No. You're not troubling me. I'm... I'm just thinking, that's all."
He nodded and walked away.
I looked up from the deck and watched him go. I felt I had done him a terrible wrong by not talking. I decided that next time I would try to be nicer.
Peter came and talked with me the next day.
We stood together in silence a long time. I could not think of anything to say. I waited for him to speak first.
"I'm going to be a captain," he said.
I looked at him with surprise. "You are?"
"Not now," he said, "but I will be. One day."
He was looking out across the ocean. I knew that he meant it.
"Are you studying with Captain Aubrey?" I asked.
He nodded. "I am. He is a fine captain to learn from."
"He is."
We fell silent again. I was about to speak when Peter was called away. He left and I stood in the silence alone.
That night I thought about Peter as a Captain. If anyone could make him one, it was Captain Aubrey. I fell asleep thinking about it.